


Homework

by realityisoverrated



Series: Infinite Love [64]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyfidelity, References to Sex, Smoaking billionaires, Toliver, flommy, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 19:45:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8546725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityisoverrated/pseuds/realityisoverrated
Summary: Tommy finds Oliver reading Robinson Crusoe.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story depicts a polyamorous relationship between one woman and two men. If this is not something you are interested in, please stop and go no further.
> 
> The promotional pictures for the Arrowverse crossover got the plot bunnies hopping around in my head. There is some discussion about the sinking of the Gambit, but mostly this is fluff.
> 
> Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for this series. All of your kudos, comments, thoughts and questions about this universe help keep my enthusiasm for writing this series high.
> 
> I'm not telling this series in chronological order. Some readers have requested that I provide a chronological order for the fics in the series. There is no need to read them in chronological order, but in case you'd like to, the list is below.  
> 1\. Beautiful Stranger (Part 28)  
> 2\. The Hack of the Golden Dragon (Part 36)  
> 3\. Girl Wednesday (Part 41)  
> 4\. This Time Last Year (Part 44)  
> 5\. The First Time (Part 1)  
> 6\. Aloe and Chamomile (Part 40)  
> 7\. The Italian Restaurant (Part 3)  
> 8\. Ground Rules (Part 43)  
> 9\. Do The Hustle (Part 21)  
> 10\. Wherever You Are, There I Am (Part 8)  
> 11\. Perfect (Part 16)  
> 12\. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (Part 49)  
> 13\. Practical Jokes and Other Misunderstandings (Part 14)  
> 14\. Cobble Hill (Part 4)  
> 15\. The Sunnybrook (Part 51)  
> 16\. House Warming (Part 15)  
> 17\. 30 (Part 30)  
> 18\. Hong Kong (Part 35)  
> 19\. Twenty Questions Over Brunch (Part 11)  
> 20\. Hildy (Part 5)  
> 21\. Burgers & Lies (Part 9)  
> 22\. You Say You Want A Revolution (Part 22)  
> 23\. Look Me In The Eye And Make Me Feel The Truth (Part 12)  
> 24\. Fight Night (Part 20)  
> 25\. Fear and Loathing (Part 42)  
> 26\. With The Band (Part 53)  
> 27\. The Scarecrow (Part 59)  
> 28\. Into Thin Air (Part 17)  
> 29\. Haunted (Part 58)  
> 30\. It’s Just Like Falling (Part 27)  
> 31\. Will You Still Love Me, Tomorrow? (Part 7)  
> 32\. Life With The Arrow (Part 23)  
> 33\. Up All Night (Part 6)  
> 34\. Welcome Home (Part 10)  
> 35\. Deadshot (Part 62)  
> 36\. Better Than Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes (Part 24)  
> 37\. The Right To Remain Silent (Part 61)  
> 38\. Home Is Where You Are (Part 2)  
> 39\. Somebody Get A Hammer (Part 26)  
> 40\. Tush Push (Part 48)  
> 41\. Three (Part 13)  
> 42\. Life Lived In The Tabloids (Part 18)  
> 43\. Tokyo Calling (Part 25)  
> 44\. Something Blue (Part 39)  
> 45\. Prudence Chastity (Part 19)  
> 46\. Love Is Worth It In The End (Part 33)  
> 47\. The Mini (Part 38)  
> 48\. The Hall of Fame (Part 46)  
> 49\. A Name By Any Other (Part 47)  
> 50\. The Drop Out (Part 32)  
> 51\. Homework (Part 64)  
> 52\. William (Part 29)  
> 53\. Hold On For One More Day (Part 31)  
> 54\. Yours, Mine, Ours (Part 37)  
> 55\. Rules Are Made To Be Broken (Part 55)  
> 56\. Hope Is Believing In The Light When All You See Is Darkness (Part 52)  
> 57\. Open Up And Say Ah (Part 60)  
> 58\. Saturdays With The Green Arrow (Part 34)  
> 59\. I Would Not Trade What Might Have Been For What Is (Part 50)  
> 60\. Brothers (Part 45)  
> 61\. Strawberry Milkshake With A Side Of Why (Part 56)  
> 62\. All About The Jeans (Part 54)  
> 63\. A Bunny For Prue (Part 63)  
> 64\. Boys Who Kiss Boys Who Kiss Girls Who Kiss Boys Who Kiss Boys (Part 57)
> 
> Welcome to any new readers who have stumbled into this universe. The more the merrier.
> 
> Arrow and its characters do not belong to me.

>

Artwork by Lademonessa

 

Tommy walked into their bedroom with a laundry basket and smiled at the image of his husband sitting on their bed reading a book with their nine-month-old son sound asleep on his bare chest and their dog curled up against his legs. Bobby was only wearing a diaper and his knees were bunched up under his chest. Unable to resist, he placed the basket on the foot of the bed and kissed the top of his sleeping son’s head. Oliver didn’t stop reading as he offered his lips for a brief kiss.

“Must be a good book,” Tommy remarked as he disappeared into their closet with the laundry. Oliver hummed his acknowledgement. It wasn’t like Oliver to lose himself in a book, but ever since he went back to college he seemed to be enjoying reading more than he did when they were younger. Tommy had been worried when Oliver had announced he was returning to school. He feared that Oliver was setting himself up for disappointment. It wasn’t that his husband wasn’t highly intelligent, because Oliver was. It was just that classroom learning and sitting still were never two things that Oliver excelled at.

He was placing a pile of Oliver’s t-shirts into a drawer when the cover of the book Oliver was reading sank in. He stepped out of the closet, “Are you reading _Robinson Crusoe_?”

Oliver looked up and then looked at the cover of the book, “I am.”

Oliver sinking beneath the surface of dark choppy water flashed in front of his eyes and Thea’s reedy voice sounded in his ear, _Tommy, the Gambit sank. Ollie’s dead. My dad’s dead. They’re gone._ Tommy suddenly felt clammy and a little dizzy, “Why?”

Oliver shrugged, “It’s for my Literature of Colonialism class. I need to finish it for next Wednesday.”

“Are you okay reading it?” Tommy leaned heavily against the closet’s doorframe. He felt like he was about to have a panic attack.

“Why?” Oliver grinned. “Because reading about someone getting shipwrecked might trigger me?” The smile fell from his face when he looked at Tommy, “Are you okay?”

When Oliver moved to get up, Tommy waved him off. “Don’t wake Bobby. I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” Oliver’s brow was furrowed with concern. He patted the space next to him on the bed, “Come sit down before you pass out.”

Tommy moved to their bed on rubbery legs and sank onto the bed. Oliver lifted his arm and Tommy ducked beneath it and placed his head on Oliver’s chest. He closed his eyes and allowed the sound of Oliver’s heart to soothe him.

“Better?” Oliver’s fingers carded through Tommy’s hair.

Tommy opened his eyes to the perfect face of their son. Bobby was snuffling against Oliver’s chest with his little fists clenched. He stroked the top of Bobby’s hand with a fingertip. The sight of Bobby’s flawless creamy skin against his dad’s scarred and mottled flesh brought tears to his eyes.

The feel of moisture falling against his chest had Oliver shifting beneath him. His hand slipped beneath Tommy’s shirt and pressed on the small of his back, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“It’s silly,” Tommy looked into Oliver’s worried blue eyes, “I’m silly.”

“We established that long ago.” Oliver smiled encouragingly, “The book upset you. Why?”

“I don’t know what happened. I realized what you were reading and I wanted to make sure that you were okay and then suddenly it was thirteen years ago and I could hear Thea telling me that you were dead.” Tommy kissed Oliver’s pec, “See, I’m completely ridiculous.”

“We never talk about that,” Oliver stroked Tommy’s head.

“Sure we do,” Tommy tried to pull away but Oliver’s arm held him tighter against his side.

“No, you joke about getting a blow job after my memorial service. You joke about all the women who threw themselves at you for the first few months after the funeral. You told me what it was like after Hong Kong. You never talk about the first two years.” Oliver stroked his back, “What just happened?”

“It was worse for you,” Tommy rubbed circles against Bobby’s back.

“We’re not comparing pain. We’re talking about you and what caused you to have a mini panic attack,” Oliver’s hand covered Tommy’s.

“Actually, we were talking about you and the book,” Tommy countered.

Oliver sighed, “At the beginning of the semester, the professor pulled me aside and asked me if I’d like her to remove it from the syllabus. I told her that it wasn’t necessary. She offered to let me skip the class discussion. I told her it wasn’t necessary.” Oliver picked the book up off the bed, “There is nothing in this book that is remotely like what I went through, other than washing up on an island. Robinson Crusoe had a lot more profound thoughts than I did. He’s also a bit of a self-righteous douche and a raging racist. Besides,” he held up one of Bobby’s fists, “this little guy in my arms is a good reminder that my life is pretty great and Lian Yu is far away.”

Tommy remembered disliking the protagonist when he read the book back in college and that the class discussion had been pretty boring. Of course, he didn’t have a returned castaway in his class. “The kids in your class are going to want you to talk about your experiences. They’re going to want you to compare what you went through to what is in this book. They’re going to want to know if the book is realistic,” he said with concern. It made Oliver uncomfortable when he was pressed for details by strangers about life on the island.

Oliver kissed the top of Tommy’s head, “I know they’re going to have questions. I can’t say I had a volleyball too, so I’m trying to decide what the name of the coconut I befriended was. It’s between Jose Cuervo and Jim Beam.”

Tommy chuckled, “There aren’t any coconuts on Lian Yu.”

“Everyone always assumes it was a tropical island with white sand beaches,” Oliver responded.

Oliver was right. Whenever people spoke to Oliver about his time away, it was clear that the television shows _Gilligan’s Island_ and _Lost_ were their reference points. No one seemed to pay attention to the longitude or latitude of Oliver’s island. “You were lost in the South China Sea not in the Caribbean,” Tommy shivered. A lifetime spent sailing had taught him a healthy respect and fear of the water. He’d capsized enough small sailboats to know how cold and unforgiving the ocean could be. For the first year after Oliver died, he’d had the same nightmare every night. Oliver was drowning in cold, dark water and no matter how hard Tommy swam, he could never reach him. Tommy pressed his cheek against Oliver’s warm skin to remind himself that they’d only ever been nightmares. Oliver’s lungs had never burned as they filled with freezing salt water. He never sank to the ocean floor where the sunlight could never reach him. Oliver had experienced indescribable suffering, but he’d made it home alive.

“Tommy, talk to me,” Oliver whispered.

“In the beginning, it was a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from,” Tommy said plainly. “Every night I dreamt about you dying and every morning I awoke to the reality that it hadn’t been a dream.” He shifted so he was looking at Oliver, “About three months after you died, I had a different dream. We were at Bay Point, sitting on the hood of my Porsche, sharing a bottle of whiskey, and watching the sunrise. You told me that you were still alive and that you’d never leave me.” Tommy blushed as he remembered the rest of the dream.

Oliver grinned and in his higher voice he asked, “Thomas Merlyn, did you have a naughty dream about me?”

He rolled his eyes, “That’s not the point. When I woke up, after I took a shower,” he winked at Oliver, “I set an alert on your email so that if you logged in, I’d know. I was convinced you were alive and it was only a matter of time before we found you. I set news alerts for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for any reports of Americans rescued at sea.” He rested his head back on Oliver’s chest, “The nightmares returned that night, but when I woke up, I still had hope that you were out there missing me too.”

Oliver tilted Tommy’s head up so he could kiss him, “I missed you every day.”

“Good,” Tommy grinned, “you deserved to miss me every day for what you put me through.” He picked up the book and handed it back to Oliver. “You have homework to finish and I have laundry to put away.”

Oliver pulled Tommy in for a kiss, “You know what we haven’t done since high school?”

Tommy arched a brow at the mischievous look on Oliver’s face, “That is a loaded question.”

“I loved making out with you instead of doing homework,” Oliver nuzzled Tommy’s neck.

Tommy laughed, “You’re holding our son.”

“He’s asleep and his crib is five feet away,” Oliver kissed Tommy’s throat.

“You have homework,” Tommy said trying to remember that they were adults with adult responsibilities.

“I have two pages left in this chapter. I’ll finish them, put our son in his crib and you can finish putting the laundry away.” Oliver sucked Tommy’s earlobe into his mouth causing him to shudder, “I’ll meet you back here in ten minutes and you can keep me company on my study break. Deal?”

Tommy nodded. His voice was husky with desire, “Yeah.” It took all of his will power to get off the bed.

He was almost to the closet when Oliver asked, “What were we drinking in your dream?”

“Jack Daniels,” Tommy responded immediately. The dream was still vivid thirteen years later and he could almost feel the burn of the whiskey as he swallowed it.

Oliver opened his book, “Jack Daniels was the best coconut friend a guy could ask for. I really miss him.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, “I pity your professor if she thinks having you in her class is going to add to the conversation.”

Oliver blinked innocently at him before returning his attention back to his book. A faint smile ghosted across his lips, “Make it five minutes.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and comments are always welcomed and appreciated. Hearing from you is my favorite part of the day.
> 
> I don't think I'll be back to posting twice a week until after I complete Deadshot (new chapter will be up on Wednesday). I'm currently in a complete news and media blackout until I'm better able to restrain myself from shouting at the television or my computer screen. The blackout has been good for both my sanity and writing productivity. I've written two holiday fics, a fic with Felicity and her dad after the twins are born, in addition to working on Deadshot and the break up fics. I'm looking for election silver linings wherever I can find them.
> 
> Any ideas or prompts for what you'd like to read in this universe are always welcome. You have been sharing some great ideas - please keep them coming.
> 
> You can also come say hi to me on tumblr. http://realityisoverrated-fic.tumblr.com/


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